Bleach: The Bonds that Break
by MrLotus
Summary: What would you do if half the people you knew changed genders sporadically, could you go on under the same relationship? For Ichigo the questions will take him through his past experiences as she learns the true meaning behind the bonds she shares with the others. AU-ish, though not really i guess


**Chapter 1: Everything Changed**

What would life become if everyone suddenly changed, if everyone were to cease to be as they are, could one's bonds survive such a drastic change? Ichigo, his son Yuichi, and Yuichi's son Kei may have defeated Kenjiro and solved the time-paradox anomalies, but in defeating the Soul Reaper able to control time, things changed drastically. By defeating the self-proclaimed master of time, everyone's actions caused time to skip back several years, in fact Ichigo would soon realize what Kenjiro meant by "when we have our rematch, things won't go as well".

When Ichigo and his family saved the soul society from Kenjiro, time reversed all the way back to Ichigo's birth, but while his father was aware of everything that would occur in the future, he was completely shocked when he was once again reunited with his Ichigo, except there was one very noticeable change, this time Ichigo was born as a baby girl. "You see Isshin, a mother always knows everything about her children, so when I told you we were having a baby girl, you should have listened to me." Masaki stated triumphantly as she looked up at her husband.

"Yeah I know Masaki…" Isshin replied before burying his mind under his own thoughts. "So Ichigo was reborn as a girl, maybe this has something to do with that man he told me about, but how could things have changed this much, is there something we missed?" He thought as he eyed his baby girl. "So what do you want to name him, er I mean her." He asked as he looked down at the sleeping baby.

"Well let's name her Ichigo, I know it's a boy's name, but I like it." Masaki replied with a warm smile.

As time passed Ichigo grew quickly, but on her fourth birthday something happened that she would keep secret for most of her life, she could remember things and events that she knew she had no part of, but the memories were so real and vivid, and on multiple occasions she would make for her parents room whenever she would have nightmares about a man wearing white calling himself a god, and she would also ramble on about something called bankai, and while her mother would comfort her by telling her it's just a dream, Isshin knew differently, he knew she was remembering what he had gone through in her previous bout at life, and he knew that eventually the time would come where Ichigo would don the black shihakusho once more, but even though he knew what to expect, things don't always turn out as one would expect, and that would be fairly obvious when Ichigo began taking martial arts classes.

It was one early fall evening when Ichigo and Masaki came home from the martial arts class, but unlike usual, this time Ichigo had brought a boy home from the classes. "Welcome to the Kurosaki residence, my name is Isshin Kurosaki, and who might you be little man?" Isshin asked calmly.

The black-haired boy looked up at Isshin before giving him a smirk that seemed all too familiar. "My name is Tatsuki Arisawa, and I swear to god if you make fun of my name I'll blast you to next year!" The little boy shouted and in the process stamping a dumbfound expression firmly on Isshin's face.

"Are all of his friends going to be this way?" Isshin wondered, but if a few years Ichigo would surely answer that question.

In the coming years Ichigo started to gain more mental control over her abstract memories, and she even succeeded in saving her mother's life by strongly ignoring the image of a girl jumping into a rushing river. Isshin knew at that point, that regardless of what he knew about the events that happened in this timeline originally, his daughter had completely flipped the script, in fact the life he knew originally was being completely reversed, instead of a strong older son, he had a beautiful older daughter, and instead of charming twin girls, he had two rambunctious boys to chase down, and he and Masaki even had another child after the twins that they named Rei.

Isshin both marveled and cursed this knew reality, everything was topsy-turvy and that bothered him, but he also had the love of his life back and a fourth child on top of that, and also the time of peace they were living in was something else entirely. Though sadly Isshin knew things would one day change, and that day was coming fast as Ichigo seemed to fly past the age of fifteen.

Ichigo was sixteen again, and like normal she went to school, seeing a few spirits along the way, and like normal she came home to the same house and dealt with the same stress, but this day was different, while on her way to school a violent explosion erupted, and in the midst of the smoke Ichigo could make out the form of a gigantic insect. Though strangely enough, she wasn't the least bit terrified of the monster, in fact she felt that seeing them was normal for her even though she knew she hadn't seen anything like that in her life, she knew it was natural for her to be facing this monster, and even more natural that she felt the strong urge to defeat it, that is until he appeared.

As the smoke settled Ichigo rested her eyes on a young man dressed in all black brandishing a fine katana, the sight made Ichigo's heart skip a beat, she felt like she knew the man already, in fact she felt like she had known him for many many years, but how? As Ichigo struggled to piece everything together, the young man slay the monster before vanishing in front of her eyes.

Afterwords Ichigo dealt with her classmates asking her question about the explosion, and when she returned home she went straight to her room, unable to keep her mind off of the man she saw earlier she stared off into space as day rapidly changed to night. As she laid on her bed in the darkness of her room, her thought process broke when she saw a black butterfly fly through her closed window, but a mere second later the man from earlier appeared standing on top of the desk beside her bed. "Who… Are you?" She asked as she gazed up at the man through widened eyes. Though the young man didn't even so much as acknowledge Ichigo's presence let alone her question, and he reacted by taking a firm grip of the katana's handle. "Who the hell are you!" She shouted as she scooted closer to the window. "What do you want!" She barked again as the young man jumped down onto the floor still ignoring Ichigo's frantic questions. "Hey!" She shouted, but again she was met with no response as the man seemed to just look around the room.

Finally after a few tense moments the man finally broke his silence. "It's near." The man uttered as he stared blankly forward.

"Don't give me "it's near" dumbass!" Ichigo shouted as she planted her foot firmly on the young man's back sending him to the floor in a bewildered state. "You scare me half to death and then ignore me!?" She shouted as the man struggled to get a grip on his bearings. "Now I demand you tell me who you are!" She shouted as she pointed down on the young man.

"Wait, you can see me? I mean actually see me?" The young man asked as he climbed to his feet, though Ichigo being roughly around five feet tall and the young man being roughly six feet tall made Ichigo a little more nervous around the man.

"Y-yes." Ichigo replied nervously as the man looked down on her through violet eyes.

"That's strange, normal people aren't supposed to see me, maybe you're a defect." The man replied.

"Who are you calling a defect, and even then I'm the one asking the questions, now tell me who you are!" Ichigo shouted, but the young man simply burst into a fit of laughter. "Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot that I told a joke." She continued sarcastically as the man kept laughing.

"I knew it! It is you Ichigo!" The man exclaimed excitedly with a beaming smile.

"H-how do you know my name?" Ichigo asked nervously.

"Well I can't really explain without sounding too crazy, but it goes like this…" The young man replied as he pulled out a sketchbook. "Now to begin with, my name is Rukia Kuchiki and I am a Soul Reaper, or rather I should say that we were Soul Reapers together. It was roughly seventeen years ago actually, something happened that made time turn back, along with some other notable changes." The young man replied as he brushed his black bangs out of his face.

"Yeah that does sound crazy considering you say you knew me seventeen years ago, but I am only sixteen years old, see? There's a very big hole in your logic." Ichigo replied.

"Hmm so the memories aren't as strong for you because you had to revert to being a normal human." Rukia stated with a sigh. "Well prepare for a major shock, because Ichigo, I was once your wife, and you my husband." He continued and Ichigo gave her a blank stare.

"I think you got those genders mixed." Ichigo pointed out.

"No! I'm serious, you were once a man, and I was once a woman, but during that event that reversed time, our genders switched, not every Soul Reaper was affected, but unfortunately those whom weren't born by this time aren't around until they are born, but that's not why I've come here." Rukia replied. "Just come with me and everything will be fully explained to you." He continued.

"Go with you were?" Ichigo asked.

"To Soul Society of course." Rukia replied. "It's a place where souls go when they die, well it's a little more complicated than that, but there will be plenty of time to figure that out later." He finished as he held up a poorly drawn picture of a male bunny with short black hair standing next to a shorter female bunny with not as short black hair, but next to the two bunnies was an arrow that led to a picture of two more bunnies, but this time the one with orange hair had long hair, and the other had short black hair akin to the male bunny from the first picture.

"Wow, even my drawings aren't that horrible." Ichigo blurted out, but instead of Rukia's former reactions of hitting Ichigo, Rukia merely chuckled at his observation.

"Same old Ichigo, well maybe "same" isn't the right word to use. Just come with me and your old memories will be revitalized." Rukia replied as he stood up. "I have a contact that lives in this town and operates a small candy store. It'll be safe to do things there." He finished.

"Well while normally I would have told you to get lost for using what is by far the lamest pickup line in history, I do remember spending a lot of time with a girl that looks like she could be your sister, so I'm going to trust you on this, please don't make me regret it." Ichigo replied, and without another word Rukia forced Ichigo into his spiritual body before the two left the clinic silently.

"I'm really glad you decided to come with me Ichigo." Rukia stated as he looked back at the timid girl riding on his back. "Wow I must say you make an adorable girl." He pointed out forcing Ichigo's cheeks to pink slightly.

"I-I'm not adorable, I'll have you know I'm a master of the martial arts and won't hesitate to utilize my expertise on arrogant men that try to pick me up based on my beauty alone." Ichigo replied angrily.

"Well you may look like a girl and act like one, but your overall demeanor will never completely change." Rukia replied with a chuckle before coming to a stop at a small shop. "We're here…" He finished as he let Ichigo off of his back.

"I know this place…" Ichigo stated calmly before jumping at the sound of the front door sliding open.

"Ah Rukia my boy welcome, and who is this young beauty?" Urahara asked as he eyed a bewildered Ichigo closely.

"Urahara Kisuke, I would like to introduce you to the new Ichigo Kurosaki." Rukia pointed out with a smirk as Urahara's expression went blank. "Ichigo this is-" He was interrupted when Ichigo made an outburst.

"Hat and clogs!" Ichigo shouted before a look of confusion swept over her face as she began to wonder how she knew what to call him.

"Well when I discovered what happened to many of the Soul Reapers I couldn't believe my ears, and when I realized time had reversed I believed Kisuke had a hand in it as well, but this is just the icing on the cake, for Ichigo Kurosaki to show up here as a woman, ha! This is just too good!" Yoruichi stated after appearing behind Urahara.

"Cat…" Ichigo mumbled.

"Yes that's right! Ichigo Miss Yoruichi here can transform into a cat, but of course you already knew that didn't you?" Urahara asked as he looked down at Ichigo as she rapidly grew more and more nervous.

"I don't know what I know, I have many memories that don't belong to me, I'm not the only one, but… Why are you in the fake memories?" Ichigo asked as she tried to shake the bad feeling that began to grow in the back of her mind.

"Well there are some tricky answers to your tricky questions, but enough of that, we have to get you ready for what is to come." Urahara stated calmly and as Ichigo looked over at Rukia she could see him nodding in agreement.

"Get me ready for what?" Ichigo asked as she glanced around all three.

"Ichigo let me ask you something…" Rukia stated before clearing his throat. "Do you remember a young black-haired woman floating in the air with a giant flaming bird in front of her?" He asked and after thinking for a second Ichigo shook his head.

"I have the image in mind, but that isn't one of my memories." Ichigo reasoned.

"Well you're half right, but let's continue, do you remember a man with brown hair attacking many people dressed the way I am?" Rukia asked as he motioned down to his shihakusho.

"Aizen…" Ichigo murmured timidly.

"Yes, do you remember a kind looking man forcing his fake bonds on people?" Rukia asked.

"Shukuro Tsukishima…" Ichigo replied though this time she held a little more courage and disgust in her voice.

"Okay, this is the last one… Do you remember a young boy with hair and eyes like mine, before you answer, imagine a young version of your father running around, only he has black hair and violet eyes." Rukia stated.

"Yuichi…" Ichigo stated, though this time her voice was filled with overwhelming compassion.

"Great Mr. Kuchiki he remembers the important details. Now then on to the hard part, reintroducing you to the life you left behind when you were reborn… Miss Kurosaki those memories you say are fake, are your real memories from when you lived your life as a man, that was of course before a nasty Soul Reaper named Kenjiro completely screwed things up. See when he died it was right after he used his bankai's greatest ability, and well it reversed time for the most part… Your father's memories were saved because he was visiting me and Miss Yoruichi here when everything happened, sometimes in changing the past you alter reality which is what happened in your case as well as Mr. Kuchiki here, of course reality can only change to an extent that is reasonable as deemed by the laws of reality. In short, your father was safe by the gender bending effects of the altered reality, but of course that meant that Masaki would also obviously need to remain a woman, however her three children, well now four children were a completely different story as you can tell." Urahara explained, but instead of clearing things up for Ichigo the poor girl looked more confused than ever.

"Wait can you run that by me again?" Ichigo asked sweetly.

"Well, even more simplified, you were originally a guy, Rukia was originally a girl, your younger brothers were both girls, and your mother died before having the fourth child so we can't really say about her… Also that Mr. Inoue that you're so fond of was originally a girl, Miss Ishida, the girl that continually calls you a slut for hanging on Mr. Inoue was actually a guy as well, same with Miss Yasutora, and again with Mr. Arisawa, he was in fact a girl." Yoruichi explained forcing Ichigo to blush. "Then there are those directly tied to the event concerning Kenjiro, but I won't spoil the surprise for you." She continued. "Now then we need to reacquaint you with your old partner." She called back as she disappeared deeper into the shop.

"Whether you believe us or not is strictly up to you Miss Kurosaki, but I'm sure you have many questions, and we have all the complicated answers, so…" Urahara trailed off as he followed Yoruichi's example.

"Come on Ichigo, let's go." Rukia stated as he grabbed Ichigo's hand.

For the following seven hours and thirty-eight minutes, Rukia, Urahara, and Yoruichi painstakingly described in much detail the story of Ichigo Kurosaki as a man, but once the explanations were over with, all three could see the familiar passion in Ichigo's eyes, and they knew that, while technically a "she", he was back.

Chapter 1 - end - so what do y'all think? I realize that my other fics aren't finished, but I had this idea come to me in a dream, and I wanted to see where I could take it, so anyway this is the final installment of the bleach bonds series that I'm still working on, this is set after the events of the bonds that transcend time, and you're probably wondering who is Kenjiro? We can't read back to discover who he is, well put simply Kenjiro is semi-my OC, when I say that I mean I took an already kanon character and tweaked him, Kenjiro is the Soul Reaper incarnation of Tsukishima, as for what all characters were affected by the gender switch, and all who knows about what's going on, there are those mentioned in this chapter, Ichigo's human friends that were changed are also the same as Ichigo, they have memories but don't believe they're theirs, aside from that, I've decided on changing the following characters genders, Captain Byakuya Kuchiki, Renji Abarai (maybe, I'm still on the fence with him) Captain Zaraki (scary thought I know), Yachiru Kusajishi, Yumichika Ayasegawa (figured why not, he's already plenty girly), and Shukuro Tsukishima (yes I'm going there on this one), may produce others, but not completely sure yet, then again portraying Toshiro as a shy girl might succeed in destroying the image many fan girls have of him, anyway reviews please, the more reviews the more incentive I have to update quicker.

Disclaimer: I do not own bleach, but if I did this whole bonds saga would have been the kanon.


End file.
